


Forthcoming

by LorettaFryingPan



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Confessions, M/M, Mutual Pining, clear communication
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-14
Updated: 2019-02-14
Packaged: 2019-10-28 07:37:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,169
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17783282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LorettaFryingPan/pseuds/LorettaFryingPan
Summary: An evening of conversation at the Lavish Chateau. Caleb is dressed to the nines, Fjord is flustered, and Marion gives very good advice.





	Forthcoming

**Author's Note:**

> Written for @its3amalready on tumblr as part of the Widofjord Valentine's Exchange! The prompt was "Fjord is overwhelmed by the Ruby of the Sea's suggestions about him and Jester while Caleb is sporting his fancy disguise and is his calmest most charming self -- drinks are had, confessions are made"

Fjord wasn’t new to the social scene, alright? He knew how to handle himself in a crowd of strangers, knew how to get along and make a good impression. He could even carry himself in the fancier echelons of society on charm alone.

This, though? This was a lot.

They’d come to the Lavish Chateau to meet Jester’s mother, and hopefully find a place to stay the night. Of course, they’d had to clean up a bit to get in the door. Thankfully, a little illusion magic was accepted just as readily.

And damn, did Caleb clean up _nice_. He looked like one of the young naval officers who would speak to Vandran on occasion; all proper posture, sharp dress, and protocol, occasionally broken by stolen smiles at Fjord, if he was lucky. He stood straighter than usual, his hair was pulled out of his face, and sitting in that dining room he looked for all the world like he was no stranger to lavish evenings with legendary courtesans.

“So, Fjord..." 

And, speaking of whom, the Ruby of the Sea was every ounce as beautiful and charming as the stories had said. It was hard not to be a little flustered by her presence, tempered as it was by the fact that she was his dear friend’s mother.

“Yes?” He asked, tearing his eyes away from where Caleb was talking with Yasha as she sat down at the table across from him. As the evening had worn on they moved into one of the Chateau’s parlor rooms, each of them in turn conversing privately with Marion. It was his turn now, apparently.

“Jester mentioned that she has been traveling with you the longest, you are from the coast?”

“Yes ma’am, from Port Damali, in fact. Have you ever been?” he couldn’t imagine that a worldly woman like her _hadn’t_ been to Port Damali, but she shook her head sadly.

“No, I have not.”

There was more there, Fjord was almost certain. But he was equally certain that it was none of his business, no he smiled and kept going.

“Well, it’s a lovely city. If you ever have a mind to go I’d be happy to tell you some good spots." 

“Thank you. It must be good to be back on the coast,” She said, smiling.

“It is. I’ve really missed seeing the ocean, and getting to show it to our friends was a treat.” He took a sip of his drink, thinking about that peaceful afternoon on the beach, and his conversation with Caleb. He hadn’t realized just how badly he’d missed it, until they’d talked.

“So the two of you traveled together all the way from Port Damali to the Empire?” She leaned in, and Fjord wondered how much of the story Jester had been able to tell her. He also wondered how colorful she had been in the telling.

“Yes, we did. There’s a little town called Trostenwald, about a day’s travel from the Wuyun Gate. We got there and ran into Beau, and then met the rest of the group a couple days later. It was a long trek, I’ll tell you that much.”

“You must have had some adventure on the way there, though?” She asked, and Fjord could see that for as intrigued as she was, there was a bit of worry in her eyes.

“Some,” he conceded. “A few bandits with big ideas, but nothing we couldn’t handle. I’ll let Jester tell you the full story, but we managed without too much fuss. She can handle herself pretty well." 

She reached across the table, setting a jeweled, elegant hand over Fjord’s with a warm smile.

“I’m glad she had you with her. My little sapphire...” she trailed off, looking fondly over to where Jester and Nott were talking. “I worried about her all off on her own, but it seems like she’s found some very good companions. I would love to hear your side of the stories, though.” 

They passed a good amount of time like that, with Fjord recounting the trip from Port Damali to Trostenwald, and a few of the highlights of their more recent escapades. Marion was wonderfully easy to talk to, and Fjord wanted to speak well of Jester to her.

And Marion was happy to hear all of it. She asked about everything, down to little details like the weather and how they arranged their camp. Fjord noticed the questions were shifting from being about Jester to being about _him_ and Jester, and Fjord felt his face warm up. 

It came to a real head when she leaned in and asked, “You are fond of her?” in a way that made it clear she didn’t mean ‘as a friend’.

Fjord coughed, trying both to clear his thoughts and not show how startled he was. Caleb looked up at the noise, and that was the last thing he needed, frankly.

Caleb had tied his hair back as part of the dress-up, and without anything obscuring his face his blue eyes were even more piercing when they met. Fjord made brief eye contact with him, and hoped his blush wasn’t too obvious. For his own part Caleb had a flush high on his cheekbones, probably from the drink, although the thought that he might have also been flustered by conversation was a hopeful one. Whatever he saw on Fjord’s face made him smile a bit, and he raised his glass silently. Fjord felt his face heat up just a little bit more.

Focusing back on Marion, Fjord gathered his thoughts. In all honesty, Jester’s affectionate nature was something he’d been avoiding dealing with. Addressing that would have meant addressing other feelings, and that was something too daunting to risk.

Now that he was _forced_ to put words to it, and to Jester’s beloved mother no less, it was still daunting but surprisingly simple.

“She’s a dear friend, and I’m happy to know her and travel with her,” he said, dropping his voice. “But I don’t...” he paused looking for the right way to phrase it.

It seemed Marion knew what he was getting at, and she nodded before he could finish his sentence. He focused on her face, trying to keep from glancing over where Caleb had gone back to his conversation.

“I think I see what you mean. Apologies if I made you uncomfortable,” she said, frowning slightly, probably dismayed by the faux pas.

“It’s fine,” he said, just wanting the whole thing to be done with. “I do still care, just not like that.”

“It’s better to be up-front about these things, in my experience,” she said. “To _all_ affected parties.”

“Not all of us are as eloquent as you, ma’am,” he deflected.

“You don’t have to be eloquent, Fjord. Just honest.”

He had nothing to say to that. He just nodded, and Marion smiled encouragingly.

“Just think on it. We’ll talk again, Fjord.” She stood up, Fjord standing with her, and made her way over to Yasha. Fjord wandered over to the bar to get another drink, and think about things.

 

~*~

 

The evening wore on slowly, but eventually it ended. Beau had sat down next to Fjord when Marion went to speak with Yasha, and they made vague plans for how they were going to spend their day. The comment Marion had made about the client who was bothering her was troubling, and they wanted to look into it as quickly as they could.

He couldn’t help but take notice when Marion sat down across from Caleb and they started talking. He wasn’t about to stare, but they were two captivating people. Once past the awkwardness of meetings, Caleb was charming and well-spoken, and even just watching him converse was engaging.

At his elbow, Beau scoffed.

“What?” Fjord asked, looking back at her, not having seen what she was irritated by.

She gave him a flat look, and opened her mouth to say something, but apparently thought better of it because she kept silent. “Nothing." 

“You sure?” It wasn’t like her to hold back.

“Yeah, I’m sure,” she said.

Fjord shrugged. “If you say so.”

Polishing off the last of her drink, Beau stood up. “I think I’m gonna turn in, it’s getting kinda late and we’ve got a douchebag to beat up tomorrow.”

“Sounds good, see you in the morning.”

She left, saying her goodnights as she went. Not long after, Marion went over to Jester, and they both went upstairs to catch up properly.

“You going to head up?” Caduceus asked, as the rest of the party seemed to be ready to follow suit and turn in for the evening.

“No, I think I’m gonna look out at the city for a bit. Breathe the sea air.”

Caduceus smiled. “It’s always good to be home, even for a little bit.”

Fjord wasn’t quite sure if he’d call Nicodranas _home_ , per se, but the sentiment was the same. “Yeah,” he replied. “It is good.”

“See you in the morning, Fjord,” Caduceus bid him, and Fjord took his glass and went out to the balcony. He heard the door open and close a few more times, as the rest of the party left him alone with his thoughts. 

It was only barely a balcony, to be honest-enough space for two people comfortably, three if they felt like getting real cozy. But it had a lovely view of Nicodranas, sparkling in the evening light. And if Fjord squinted, he could almost make out the Open Quay, and the ocean just beyond it. The city was much quieter at night, without the shriek of gulls and mad rush of people coming and going, but there was still a gentle hum that he had missed, when they were on the road. There was a constant thrum of life in cities, a sense of people being close by at all hours. It was present in Zadash as well, and soothed the part of him that missed being on a crowded ship. Fjord leaned on the rail and enjoyed the quiet scene.

“Everything alright?”

Caleb’s voice from behind him was unmistakable, and Fjord turned to look at him. He was hard to make out, as backlit as he was. Fjord couldn’t really discern the expression on his face, and he only hoped his own face wasn’t doing anything unfortunate. He thought he was alone.

“Yeah, just getting some fresh air.”

“Mind if I join you?”

“Not at all.”

Caleb walked up, leaning against the rail in mimicry of Fjord’s own posture. He was still wearing the illusory outfit, and as much as he enjoyed it Fjord wondered how many spell slots Caleb had gone through for the sake of keeping up appearances.

“What a day, huh?” he asked, giving Fjord a sidelong glance.

“Right?” Fjord replied. “It was one thing to know this was the life Jester used to lead, but—“

“It’s truly another thing to see it firsthand,” Caleb nodded. “Marion is a wonderful woman, to let so many strangers into her home and welcome us all so warmly.”

“She really is. Did you have a good conversation with her?”

Caleb’s face turned pensive, and after a moment he nodded. “I did. It’s hard to put properly into words—“

“Hard to believe you’re ever short for words,” Fjord cut in.

Caleb pursed his lips, but went on. “You’re kind. It is only that I thought I came here ready for anything, and yet I was still surprised. She gives very good advice.”

That seemed to be going around.

“How about you?” Caleb asked, tilting his glass towards Fjord before taking a sip out of it. “It seemed like the two of you had a very good conversation.”

“We did, I suppose.”

“You suppose?” 

“It’s like you said, only I can’t really say I was ready for anything. She’s real sharp, and I guess I was just a little surprised to be, uh, seen like that.” 

Caleb hummed thoughtfully, but didn’t say anything else. For lack of anything else to say, Fjord took a sip of his own drink. His head was pleasantly fuzzy this far into the evening, but he wasn’t so gone that he worried about saying anything he might regret. 

Although with Caleb standing so close to him, he was more worried he might say too much. 

Marion’s advice echoed in the back of his head, and Fjord sighed. It came out louder than he intended, and Caleb gave him a worried look.

“Everything alright, my friend?”

He was still Caleb, even with the glamour; he had just been polished up a bit. Everything that caught Fjord’s eye before was still there, only now on clearer display. There was still the same edge in his gaze, the same solemn turn to his mouth, the same careful and measured counsel in his words. If he leaned in, Fjord would still smell dust and books and odd, discordantly fragrant spell components.

Gods and ancestors, he was thinking about _smelling_ Caleb, he couldn’t keep this up much longer.

“I’m fine, just thinking.” The words were there, on the tip of his tongue. He took a drink to brace himself.

“Well, know that I’m here if you want to talk about it. If there’s anything I can do to help, just ask.”

Fjord felt like he was standing on the edge of a dock, ready to dive into the water. There was the same ball of tension in his gut, the wound up spring of energy at the thought of this going horribly wrong.

_Honest, be honest._

“You’re very charming, you know that?”

Caleb seemed surprised, which certainly made two of them. It wasn’t how he wanted to lead into this, necessarily, but his heart was apparently tired of the dithering and took the reins.

“Oh?” Was all he said in reply, and Fjord could see the warmth in his face deepen.

“Yeah. You’ve, uh, got a real way with people when you want to.” Caleb gave him a skeptical look, and he went on. “Like with Ophelia, back in Shady Creek. I have no idea what you guys talked about the first time, but when we were getting ready to escort her back to Zadash she was really only interested in talking to you. The rest of us might as well have been decorative.”

Caleb said nothing, so Fjord kept going. “It’s captivating, honestly.”

“Captivating.” Under any other circumstances, Fjord would have been pleased at rendering Caleb speechless. Right now it just felt like he was stumbling off a cliff.

“Yeah. It has been kinda hard to focus on anything else all night what with that, and with how good you look all dressed up.” He gestured up and down at Caleb.

This was it. There was absolutely no going back now. Words spilled out of him on one long run-on rush.

“And I’ve been trying to keep it to myself, a bit, because I didn’t want to make things weird in the group or uncomfortable with you, and I’ve been kinda just figuring things out overall, but this shindig all really brought it to a head and Marion said I oughta be honest. So this isn’t how I planned on this going at-fuckin- _all_ but now that we’re here I might as well lay it out on the line.”

A deep breath. Fjord forced himself to look up and find Caleb’s eyes. For his own part, Caleb was gripping the railing with one white knuckled hand and staring directly at Fjord. He hadn’t said anything, or indeed made any sound whatsoever, but he also hadn’t walked away.

“I like you, Caleb. I mean, really like you. I think I have for a while. I think you’re incredible.” He dragged a hand through his hair, finally out of words. “That’s it. That’s all I’ve got. Please say something." 

Caleb nodded, but stayed quiet. He opened his mouth a couple times but couldn’t quite manage to say anything. The calm, confident demeanor he’d been carrying around all evening seemed to have vanished.

“I, uh, hm.” Caleb knocked back the last bit of his drink and set the glass on the floor behind him. When he stood back up his eyes were downcast, but he slowly rose to look Fjord in the face.

“I am not nearly so great as you think I am, but I am certainly flattered, and, well. Grateful, or rather, pleased that you think so. It certainly makes my own feelings less awkward." 

“Pardon?” Fjord had checked out a little bit after Caleb had said he was flattered, bracing himself for the inevitable rejection. “Your own feelings?”

If he had thought Caleb was flushed earlier, he was positively _incandescent_ now.

“Ja. I had hoped to be subtle about them for the very same reasons you did. I did not wish to make you uncomfortable, or jeopardize the balance of the group.”

Fjord was still a little stuck on the revelation that Caleb has been crushing on _him_ , so he held up a hand and said “Wait. Feelings?" 

That pulled Caleb out of his flustered state, and he looked at Fjord like he’d suddenly sprouted another head. For all the man had a difficult time starting, he was certainly going now. It reminded Fjord of the few times Caleb felt strongly enough about something to stress his opinion and argue it to the group. He spoke less like he was articulating his perspective and more like he was stating plain fact.

“Fjord, you cannot be blind to how handsome you are. You are clever, and charming, and loyal. You turn heads wherever we go. Anyone would be very lucky to win your notice.”

“And you thought I wouldn’t notice you?" 

“I work rather hard to be beneath notice. More to the point, I thought you had _noticed_ someone else and I did not wish to put you in a bad position.”

There were a few things in that statement that troubled Fjord, but they would deal with that later. More pressing was that he knew exactly what Caleb meant when he said “noticed”, and he winced a bit.

“Yeah, I can see how you’d think that. She’s real dear to me, but not like that. I don’t know how she sees me but that’s something we’ll have to talk out.”

“I’ve heard great things about honesty,” Caleb said, the barest smile at the corners of his eyes.

Fjord laughed softly, stepping closer to Caleb. The balcony felt cozy now, almost intimate despite being an open platform over the city. “So have I.”

“And, if we are being perfectly honest, I would like for you to kiss me now.” Caleb reached out and smoothed a hand over Fjord’s shoulder, smiling softly.

“Well, such honesty is to be rewarded,” Fjord smirked, leaning in.

“Oh don’t start,” Caleb laughed, grabbing the collar of Fjord’s shirt and yanking him in the last couple of inches.

And there was nothing else to say after that.

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed it! This whole exchange has been a blast. Do let me know what you think! :)
> 
> I'm on tumblr at lorettafryingpan/djinn-and-djuice, and on twitter @sea_laire


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